Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cream Puffs with Caramel topping and toasted peanuts

These cream buffs have a peanut butter and chocolate pastry cream filling, then the tops are dipped in crunchy caramel and sprinkled with toasted chopped Peanuts. 

Chocolate, peanut butter and caramel cream puffs:

½ cup water

4 tbsp butter (60g), diced

3/4 cup plain flour, sifted

1 dessertspoon sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 200C/400F fan bake.

Place the water and butter in a medium pot and heat to a rolling boil. Once the butter is fully melted, add the flour all at once and beat over the heat with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and starts to crust a little on the base of the pan. This should take about 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and transfer the batter to a cake mixer or large mixing bowl. Add sugar and vanilla and beat for 20 seconds before beating in the eggs one at a time. The mixture should be thick enough to drop from the spoon in clumps, rather than falling freely.

Pipe small rounds of the batter 1 and a half inches apart onto a lined baking tray. Bake at 200Cfor 12 minutes or until the puffs looks golden and feels firm when tapped. Turn off the oven, but leave the puff to sit inside for another 15 minutes.

Filling:

4 large egg yolks

75g caster sugar

25g plain flour

finely grated zest of one lemon

250ml full fat milk

150g dark chocolate

2 – 3 tbsp. smooth natural peanut butter, to taste

100ml cream, whipped

Method:

To make the filling, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar, flour, and one-third of the milk until smooth. Heat the rest of the milk in a medium pan until almost boiling, then pour onto the yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Return to the pan and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Simmer for one minute, whisking, cooking out the flour taste and cool until lukewarm.

Meanwhile, gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming hot water but not boiling water (don't let the baste of the bowl touch the water). Cool until lukewarm, then whisk the chocolate and peanut butter into the custard. Cover and chill for at least an hour before folding in the whipped cream. 

Caramel topping

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

Chopped toasted peanuts

place the sugar in a heavy based sauce pan and melt over a medium, not stirring, till it starts to turn a darker colour. When it starts to get darker round the edges, give it a bit of a swirl but do not stir else it may crystallize. Keep boiling till it is an amber colour. Remove from the heat and immediately dip the tops on the cream puffs in the caramel and sprinkle with the shopped toasted peanuts. With a small circle nozzle, pipe the filling into the creampuffs and serve.